Just out of curiosity what percentage of nests are lost due to coons..?
Do y'all really believe there are now thousands of more coons now then there were when trapping was profitable...? Every forum I visit its the same story. Coons, Coons, Coons. What about crows...?
What about some of the real reasons populations are down across this country...?
In the eighties when I believe most would agree was the hay day for the wild turkey, but then again most probably weren't even born. Were there pop up blinds..? Were there corn feeders there to help spread disease and make predators more successful...? Were there gobbler decoys...? Did we have cell cameras to let you know what food plot to sit on and when...?
Turkey hunting/ killing is now the cool thing to do. It's to the point that any yahoo that " Ive always wanted to try turkey hunting" can walk smooth out of Academy with a place that holds turkeys and be a instant Facebook/ Social media turkey killing Profesional.
Just my thoughts over what I've seen the last 38 years in the spring woods.
The great state of Alabama was the last southern state to allow the use of decoys and now one of the first to regulate its use. I'm not a resident of Alabama but I'm proud of their decision to do so.
KP, I agree with your general sentiments, but the 80s were not the "hay day" for me at all. We didn't kill a single turkey on our place from 84 to 89. There weren't any left because of so much timber being cut in the area. They started coming back in 90 and we haven't had a year without turkeys since then. Those turkeys started using the pine plantation when it was 11 years old; I seldom see that these days.
I seldom see it mentioned, but the big difference in habitat between now and then is that today the site prep work is done with herbicides; back then it was done with dozers. The dozers made a habitat that was very attractive to both quail and turkeys, and I think the loss of that method has had a more detrimental effect on both birds than any other factor.
Poorcountrypreacher my friend. Timber cutting has been around way longer then you are I. Yes, it has changed dramatically over the year's. I live in and hunt in Livingston parish Louisiana. I am part of a 12,000 acre hunting club in whch I've hunted since 94. In 1943 a census was done in Louisiana looking for what was left of the turkey population in our state. There were very few locations where they were found. One of the concentrations was the exact location of my club. These are native wild turkeys and have never been restocked. These birds have existed even though they have been poached since existence. They have survived the timber cutting changes and the rest that has been thrown at them.
There were many years where we killed approximately 30 a year on that place even though the habitat was being constantly lost. The timber company ( Weyhaueser) cut ditches and drained the hardwood flats so they could be cut and planted with pines. What habitat they haven't destroyed hurricane Ida took out the rest. I would bet we have less than 3,000 acres that would hold a turkey on 12,000 acres.
There are big differences from where you live compared to where I live. Our pines are planted in rows like corn and are so thick that they are not even penatratable until they are thinned. We have been blessed with Chinese Privit and Tallow.
That is one big difference I see in our two areas. I've hunted your central Alabama area for the last 3 years. I know the difference. Cental Alabama per acre has way more turkey habitat.
We lost a week are two a few years back to help the population. Do I think it was a good idea. Yes I do. We typically killed 80 percent of our birds the first 9 days of the season. We did have somewhat of a come back until this year. We killed 10 turkeys this year and everyone was killed in the first 9 days.
Several of those were killed due to the reasons I mentioned in my post above.
We had an extremely wet spring 2 years ago. So, I knew what we were facing. On a positive note I saw 27 jakes this spring.
I could go on and on.
